wring
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
English [edit]
Etymology [edit]
From Middle English wringen, from Old English wringan, from Proto-Germanic *wrenganan (compare West Frisian wringe, Low German wringen, Dutch wringen, German ringen ‘to wrestle’), from Proto-Indo-European *wrenǵʰ- (compare Lithuanian reñgtis ‘to bend down’, Ancient Greek ῥίμφα (rhímpha) ‘fast’), nasalized variant of *werǵʰ- ‘bind, squeeze’. More at worry.
Pronunciation [edit]
Verb [edit]
wring (third-person singular simple present wrings, present participle wringing, simple past wrang or wrung, past participle wrung)
- To squeeze or twist tightly so that liquid is forced out.
- You must wring your wet jeans before hanging them out to dry.
- To obtain by force.
- The police said they would wring the truth out of that heinous criminal.
- To hold tightly and press or twist.
- Some of the patients waiting in the dentist's office were wringing their hands nervously.
- He said he'd wring my neck if I told his girlfriend.
- (intransitive) To writhe; to twist, as if in anguish.
- Shakespeare
- 'Tis all men's office to speak patience / To those that wring under the load of sorrow.
- Shakespeare
Translations [edit]
to squeeze or twist tightly so that liquid is forced out
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to obtain by force
to hold tightly and press or twist
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Translations to be checked
References [edit]
- wring in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
- wring in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
Dutch [edit]
Verb [edit]
wring
